Chapter 4 Delicious Water Chestnuts
The pulling force was unexpectedly strong and came suddenly.
However, once Zhang Ze was prepared, it became difficult for the fish to escape.
He tensed his arm muscles, grabbed the nylon line and pulled it back. It was a little bit strenuous, but still bearable.
After pulling twice, the fish suddenly exerted force, and Zhang Ze had no choice but to stop and hold on. It was a hot summer day, and soon he was covered in sweat.
But he felt very happy in his heart. The feeling was quite good. He estimated that the fish weighed at least ten pounds.
In his previous life, if he had caught a fish this big, he would have had to carry the fish around the streets looking for a home.
Next, it’s time for him to play tug-of-war with the big fish in the water.
Whenever the fish relaxed, he would immediately reel in the fishing line. When the fish exerted force, he would try to hold on as long as possible. If he couldn't hold on, he would have to loosen the line a little.
After struggling back and forth for more than ten minutes, he finally pulled the big fish to the shore. Then he quickly clamped the fish's mouth with pliers and dragged it to the shore and into the space.
[Successfully caught a mandarin fish weighing 11.23 catties, experience +7. ]
Wow, a mandarin fish weighing 11 kilograms. He would never dare to imagine this in later generations. It is estimated that only some particularly lucky anglers can catch such a big one, or even bigger.
Unfortunately, he didn’t catch another mandarin fish weighing more than ten kilograms until all the loaches were used up.
Two fish hooks were straightened, including the one used to catch the big mandarin fish.
If we had delayed a little longer, the big mandarin fish would have run away.
There are currently twenty-three mandarin fish in the fishing space, except for one weighing eleven pounds, the others are all below five pounds.
Zhang Ze did some calculations and found that the mandarin fish weighed a little over 97 kilograms, almost 100 kilograms.
Unfortunately, the bait had been used up, and it was not convenient for him to catch loaches so late at night.
Otherwise, he would say he would weigh 100 kilograms no matter what. What a damn obsessive-compulsive disorder!
As for the fishing space, there are currently 161 experience points.
The fishing space will not automatically upgrade just because the experience points are sufficient. Zhang Ze needs to take the initiative to upgrade it. This is quite humane, but it seems to be useless at the moment.
Maybe I'll find new uses for it in the future, like that empty 'function'.
Zhang Ze's mind moved, and the fishing space was immediately upgraded to level two.
[Fishing Space (Level 2)]
[Experience: 0/200]
【Function: None】
【Space size: 2 cubic meters】
[Fishing experience: 61]
After the upgrade, the size of the space immediately doubled. The originally crowded space suddenly became much more spacious, and the fish could swim back and forth freely.
Zhang Ze packed up his tools, rinsed the bucket with river water, and went back along the path he had come from.
Seeing a patch of grass in front of him, he knocked on it with a stick as usual.
As a result, there was no movement in the grass, but he was startled by the sudden "splash" sound coming from the water plants beside the river bank.
Zhang Ze turned his head and found that it was a frog that jumped into the water out of fright.
Just as he was about to go back, something white vaguely seen among the water plants caught his attention.
In the moonlight, these white things are quite conspicuous, and their shape is like cow horns.
A delicious thing that he hadn’t eaten for a long time immediately appeared in Zhang Ze’s mind - water chestnut.
He used a wooden stick to pull up the plants from the river bank, picked the fruits and saw that they were indeed water chestnuts.
The water chestnuts come in white, black, red and green colors. The black, green and red colors are hard to see at night, so he can only distinguish them based on the depth of the colors.
When you peel open the white and green peel, you will find white and tender fruit inside. It is extremely sweet in one bite, even sweeter than a big pear.
The black ones are older, but have a higher starch content and a richer flavor when cooked.
I don’t recommend eating the red ones because they don’t taste good.
There is a lack of everything at home, especially food.
This thing is good. Zhang Ze immediately picked up the water chestnut and smelled it. There was no bad smell. Obviously, these water chestnuts were fresh. He immediately picked all the ones on the shore and put them in his clothes.
There was a large area further away, but he had to go into the water, so he gave up for the time being.
We returned home with a great harvest tonight. As soon as we got home, Zhang Huihong came out of the room with a kerosene lamp.
Zhang Ze was stunned: "Mom, you haven't slept yet?"
"I can't sleep if you're not back!" Zhang Huihong came to his side and shone the kerosene lamp under the bucket.
When she saw several big fish in the bucket and a small pile of water chestnuts next to it, her face was full of surprise.
“So many mandarin fish and water chestnuts?”
The fish in the bucket were naturally put there by Zhang Ze when he was about to get home. There were seven in total, all weighing two or three pounds.
"I was lucky today. I wanted to catch some grass carp, but it turned out that there were only mandarin fish. I found the water chestnuts when I came back, right on the river bank."
"These fish are very delicate and cannot be kept alive!" Zhang Huihong was very happy when she saw the mandarin fish, but she was a little worried about how to deal with these fish.
"The fish is pretty good. Why don't we take it to the commune purchasing station and ask them if they want it?"
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"No, it's okay for the purchasing station to exchange grass carp and crucian carp for grain, but I plan to sell these mandarin fish in the city." Zhang Ze quickly shook his head and refused.
In the city, mandarin fish can be sold for at least 80 cents or even one dollar per pound. At the purchasing station, the price will probably be cut in half, and if there are too many fish, others may not buy them all.
Aquatic products are different from other agricultural products. Only alive ones are valuable. If there are too many fish, the other party will worry that they cannot keep them.
Of course, Zhang Ze can naturally take over the twenty or so purchasing stations here, but he is unwilling to suffer this loss!
"Are you going to the black market in the city?" When Zhang Huihong heard that her son was going to the city, she immediately thought of the black market.
Apart from the black market, she couldn't think of anywhere else to sell fish.
"Mom, there's nothing you can do if you want to live a better life. In fact, there are people doing business secretly everywhere in the city. If others can do it, why can't we? No matter what, I have to go to the city to take a look."
Zhang Ze knew that he couldn't hide the fact of fishing and selling fish from his mother, so he tried to convince her to support him.
If it were before, Zhang Huihong would never agree, but today the children's eager look at the meat touched her heart and her thoughts changed slightly.
After thinking it over again and again, she made up her mind and said, "Then I'll go sell it. I can't let you take this risk. You still have to get married and can't get arrested!"
Zhang Ze smiled bitterly and said, "Mom, I have to go to this black market. If something happens, I can run faster and won't be caught easily."
"Just stay home and take care of your sister and brother until I come back!"
After saying this, he was afraid that Zhang Huihong would continue to say something to stop him, so he picked up the bucket and walked into his room.
"Alas~"
Seeing her son like this, Zhang Huihong could only sigh helplessly.
In fact, Zhang Ze’s grandparents are still alive, and they live a pretty good life.
But they blamed her for their son's death, and with the instigation of some people with ulterior motives, they ignored her family for so many years.
If they had help from their elders, their family wouldn't have had such a hard time.
Thinking of this, Zhang Huihong sighed again, then picked up all the water chestnuts and put them in a basin, washed them clean, sorted out the ones of different colors, and then lit a fire to cook all the black ones.
The black market is not only open at night, but it is safer at night.
Zhang Ze had to get up in the middle of the night to go to the city, and these water chestnuts were just enough for him to fill his stomach.
When Zhang Ze returned to the room, he saw his brother sleeping on his back. He shook his head in amusement, put the bucket in the dark corner and put the fish back into the fishing space.
There were only two rooms in the house, one for him and his younger brother, and one for his two younger sisters and their mother.
Now he shares a room with his brother, and there is a certain risk of being discovered when using the fishing space.
But mandarin fish are difficult to keep alive and may not survive for a few hours, so he had to take some risks to get the fish back.
For now, we can only make money quickly and build the house first.
Fortunately, Zhang Wu is young and sleepy, so he should not be discovered in a short time.
If we are going to release two chapters in a row, let’s set a time and release them at 6pm.
(End of this chapter)
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